'Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh; with Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an Account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis.' [‎156] (191/450)

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PRINCIPAL VILLAGES. [CH. XVIII.
We got under way again at half past one.
There was very little current, and our going was
very slow. We passed much ground that had been
gained from the river. At a quarter past four the
date-trees on the Khalis were in sight; on the left
was Tel Khumeisia.
At six we stopped for the night at Sindia, the
first village of Khalis, on the Tigris* ; and here we
took his way up the bazaar, where he overturned and hurt some
persons; he then got into a mosque, to the great terror of a few
people who were in it; being dislodged from this asylum, he took
refuge in the house of the Seraff Bashi, a Jew; and I believe paid
two or three visits of this nature before he was shot.
* The district of Khalis is situated to the north of Bagdad, and
takes its name from a canal which is cut from the Diala to the
Tigris, and supplies sixty-two villages, most of which are now
become mere nominal ones, with water for agriculture; the Tigris
itself being unfit for that purpose. The principal of these villages
are Yenghijeh, twenty miles from Bagdad, on the banks of the
Tigris, now almost abandoned on account of the great oppression
under which the peasantry labour : Howeish, a village of a hun
dred houses, famous for its fruit gardens, three miles from
Yenghijeh, and also on the Tigris; Dokhala, close to Howeish;
Hophopa, about six miles from Howeish in the desert; Mansoo
ria, six miles from Howeish on the Tigris ; Saadia, three and a
half miles from Mansooria, also on the Tigris; Sindia, Doltova,
and several villages on the Diala.
Near Mansooria some cotton is grown; the rest of the culti
vation is barley, corn, and grass.
During an excursion I made through this district in the month of
March, 1813,1 had an opportunity of seeing several specimens of the
strange impolicy and savage oppression of the Turks towards their
peasantry, one of which is worth recording, as it proves to what an
extent the wretched system of mahhsoobiet is carried. A poor
man at Howeish invited us into his garden, which we found in
very bad order. He said he was a Mahhsoob, a dependant, or